Synopsis by Mark D. Cunningham, Ph.D.
Risk and Protective Factors for Serious, Violent, and Chronic Juvenile Offenders in
the Community
U.S. Department of Justice Model
U.S. Department of Justice (June 1995). Guide for implementing the comprehensive strategy for
serious, violent, and chronic juvenile offenders. Juvenile Justice Bulletin: OJJDP Update on
Programs. NCJ 153571. Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency
Prevention.
Research over the past 30 years has identified precursors to delinquency and violence,
called risk factors, as well as protective factors that buffer an individual against risk
factors and inhibit the development of behavior problems. Approaches that reduce risk
factors while enhancing protective factors are likely to provide the strongest form of
prevention.
Risk Factors for Violence and Delinquency
In the Community
Conception to age 6:
Perinatal difficulties
Minor physical abnormalities
Brain damage
Family history of criminal behavior and substance abuse
Family management problems
Family conflict
Parental attitudes favorable toward, and parental involvement in, crime and
substance abuse
Age 6 through adolescence:
Extreme economic deprivation
Community disorganization and low neighborhood attachment
Transitions and mobility
Availability of firearms
Media portrayals of violence
Family management problems
Family conflict
Parental attitudes favorable toward, and parental involvement in, crime and
substance abuse
Early and persistent antisocial behavior
Academic failure
Lack of commitment to school
Alienation and rebelliousness
Association with peers who engage in delinquency and violence
Favorable attitudes towards delinquent and violent behaviors
Constitutional factors (e.g. low intelligence, hyperactivity, attention-deficit
disorders)
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Synopsis by Mark D. Cunningham, Ph.D.
Protective Factors that Inhibit Violence
and Delinquency in the Community
U.S. Department of Justice (June 1995)
Individual characteristics:
Female gender
Intelligence
Positive social orientation
Resilient temperament
Social bonding to positive role models:
Family members
Teachers
Coaches
Youth leaders
Friends
Healthy beliefs and clear standards for behavior, including those that promote
nonviolence and abstinence from drugs.
Effective early interventions.
U.S. Department of Justice (April 2000)
Predictors of Youth Violence
in the Community
Hawkins, J.D., Herrenkohl, T.I., Farrington, D.P., Brewer, D., Catalano, R.F., Harachi, T.W., &
Cothern, L. (April 2000). Predictors of youth violence. Juvenile Justice Bulletin. U.S. Department
of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
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Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention coordinated
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22 researchers brought together for 2 years
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Analyzed current research on risk and protective factors in the development of
serious youth violence
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Synthesis of 66 studies, plus research reports, plus longitudinal data
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Identified individual, family, school, peer-related, and community/neighborhood
risk factors
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Cumulative impact: the larger the number of risk factors the youth was exposed
to, the greater the probability of violent behavior in the community.
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Synopsis by Mark D. Cunningham, Ph.D.
Factors associated with serious youth violence (odds ratios in parenthesis):
Individual factors
Hyperactivity, concentration problems, restlessness, and risk taking (x 2 - 5)
Aggressiveness (x .5 - 6)
Early initiation of violent behavior (x 6)
Involvement in other forms of antisocial behavior
Beliefs and attitudes favorable to deviant or antisocial behavior.
Family factors
Parental criminality (x 0 - 3.8)
Child maltreatment
Poor family management practices (x 2)
Low levels of parental involvement
Poor family bonding and family conflict
Residential mobility (+)
Parental attitudes favorable to substance abuse and violence (x 2)
Parent-child separation
School factors
Academic failure
Low bonding to school
Truancy and dropping out of school
Frequent school transitions
High delinquency rate schools
Peer-related factors
Delinquent siblings
Delinquent peers
Gang membership (x 3-4)
Community and neighborhood factors
Poverty (x 2)
Community disorganization (crime, drug-selling, gangs, poor housing)
Availability of drugs and firearms
Neighborhood adults involved in crime
Exposure to violence and racial prejudice
Situational factors
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Synopsis by Mark D. Cunningham, Ph.D.
Risks Associated with Father Absence
57% of black children living with mother only are in poverty, compared with 15% living
with married parents.
U.S. Bureau of Census (1993). Poverty in the United States, 1992. Series P-60, no. 185. U.S.
Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.
The low supervision of adolescents frequently found in father-absent homes was more the
cause of delinquency than poverty.
Sampson, R.J. & Laub, J.H. (1994). Urban poverty and the family context of delinquency: A new
look at structure and process in a classic study. Child Development, 65, 523-540.
More likely to commit a school crime.
Jenkins, P.H. (1995). School delinquency and school commitment. Sociology of Education, 68,
221-239
The likelihood that a young male will engage in criminal activity doubles if he is raised
without a father and triples if he lives in a neighborhood with a high concentration of
single-parent families.
Hill, M.A. & O’Neil, J. (1993). Underclass behaviors in the United States: Measurement and
Analysis of Determinants. City University of New York, Baruch College.
70% of the juveniles in state reform institutions grew up in single- or no-parent
situations.
Beck, A. Kline, S., & Greenfield, L. (September, 1988). Survey of youth in custody, 1987.
Bureau of Justice Statistics.
72% of adolescent murderers grew up without fathers.
Cornell, D. et. al. (1987). Characteristics of adolescents charged with homicide. Behavioral
Sciences and the Law, 5, 11-23.
Fatherless children are at a dramatically greater risk of drug and alcohol abuse, mental
illness, suicide, poor educational performance, teen pregnancy and criminality.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (1993), National Center for Health Statistics,
Survey of Child Health, Washington, D.C.
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Synopsis by Mark D. Cunningham, Ph.D.
Risks Associated with having a Teenage Mother
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More likely to be low birth weight (x .5)
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Suffer poorer health in childhood but receive only half the level of medical care
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Much less likely to grow up in a family with a father
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Quality of the home is lower in emotional support and cognitive stimulation
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More likely to run away from home (x 2.5)
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Far more likely to be physically abused, abandoned, or neglected (x 2 compared to 20-21
year old mothers)
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5% end up in foster care
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Do much worse in school. Less likely to be rated “excellent” by teachers (x 2-3). More
likely to repeat a grade (x .5)
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More likely to drop out of school (x 2 – half related to teen mother)
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At age 24 approximately 30% are neither in school nor working (x .71 – half related to
teen mother)
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Sons of teen mothers are more likely to land in prison (x 2.7 – 19% attributed to teen
mother alone)
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Adolescent childbearing alone cost $1 billion annually in prison costs for their sons. Total
annual social cost to taxpayers is $29 billion.
Kids having kids: A Robin Hood Foundation special report on the costs of adolescent
childbearing. R.A. Maynard (Editor).
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Synopsis by Mark D. Cunningham, Ph.D.
Outcomes of Maltreated Children
Widom Study
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908 children court identified as abused/neglected before age 11 in 1967-1971; and
667 matched controls
676 abused/neglected and 520 controls interviewed in late 1990’s
Criminal arrest
Arrest for violent crime
Abused/Neglected
56.5%
21.0%
Controls
42.5%
15.6%
Widom, C.S. (January, 2000). Childhood victimization: Early Adversity, later psychopathology. National Institute of
Justice Journal.
Rochester Youth Development Study
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1,000 7th and 8th graders in Rochester, New York in 1988
14% had maltreatment record
Youths and primary caretakers interviewed every 6 months regarding violence
Criminal violence
Abused/Neglected
69%
Controls
56%
Kelley, B.T., Thornberry, T.P., & Smith, C.A. (August, 1997). In the wake of childhood
maltreatment. Juvenile Justice Bulletin. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention,
U.S. Department of Justice
Additional findings of the Rochester Youth Development Study regarding violence in home:
Three types of family violence exposure studied
Spouse abuse
Abuse of children
Climate of violence and hostility
Rates of serious youth violence:
If no family violence
If one type of violence
If two types of violence
If three types of violence
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38%
60%
73%
78%
Thornberry, T.P. (December, 1994). Violent families and youth violence. Fact sheet #21. National
Criminal Justice Resources and Statistics. U.S. Department of Justice.
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Synopsis by Mark D. Cunningham, Ph.D.
Implications of Youthfulness
Brain development continues to age 25, particularly in the frontal lobes.
judgment
empathy
impulse control
responsibility
delay of gratification
appreciation of consequences
Characteristics of adolescence confirmed by research*:
…adolescents tend to be less mature, more impulsive, and less capable of
controlling their conduct and thinking in terms of long-range consequences.
Adolescence is a stage of human development in which one's character and moral
judgment are incomplete and still undergoing formation.
Factors that delay maturity:
Low IQ
Psychological disorder
Developmental trauma
Substance abuse
Peer isolation and rejection
Corruptive community or family
*Brief of the American Society for Adolescent Psychiatry and the American Orthopsychiatric
Association filed as an amici curiae in Thompson v Oklahoma (1986) in the U.S. Supreme Court.
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